Infrastructure funding benefiting Boone County

FRANKFORT, KY—In his final legislative session as the senator for Boone County, John Schickel, R-Union, has once more helped secure millions in critical funding to support local projects.

Included in the state’s two-year road plan, House Bill (HB) 266, was an incredible $136,397,610 for planning, designing, obtaining rights-of-way, utility work, and construction of various projects in the county, including

• $400,000 will support a county bridge project on Interstate 275 at the Ohio River, 
• $750,000 to modernize existing roadways through central Boone County, including KY Highway 536 and US Highway 42,
• $750,000 to improve existing alignments and new construction between KY Highway 536 (Hathaway Road) and KY Highway 14 (Verona Mudlick Road),
• $998,400 to improve safety and address geometric deficiencies along KY Highway 18 from Caroline Williams Way to KY Highway 338; including multimodal transport,
• $1.3 million to improve access to KY Highway 237 for Litton Lane,
• $1.5 million to reconstruct Limaburg Road from KY Highway 18 to Gateway Boulevard,
• $1.62 million to improve safety and reduce congestion on Limaburg Road from Conrad Lane to KY Highway 18 (Burlington Pike),
• $1.75 million to reconstruct KY Highway 536 from Camp Ernst Road to Old Union Road (mile point 8.0-10.8),
• $2.5 million to convert Turfway Rd and Thoroughbred Blvd from two-way to one-way and construct new I-75 access,
• $4 million to convert KY Highway 18 (Burlington Pike) to a super street,
• $4.5 million to improve mobility and reduce congestion on US Highway 25 from Winning Colors Drive to the Norfolk Southern Railroad crossing south of KY Highway 1829 (Industrial Road),
• $4.96 million to improve safety and reduce congestion along Hicks Pike from US Highway 42 to KY Highway 338,
• $5.38 million to reconstruct Gunpowder Road from US Highway 42 to KY Highway 536,
• $6.7 million to reconstruct KY Highway 3060 (Frogtown Road) from US Highway 42 to US Highway 25,
• $7 million to reconstruct Turfway Road (KY Highway 717) from Aero Parkway (mile point 0.0) to Donaldson Road (mile point 1.67),
• $9.6 million to improve safety, mobility, reduce congestion, and address geometric deficiencies along Camp Ernst Road from KY Highway 237 (Pleasant Valley Road) to KY Highway 536 (Hathaway Road),
• $10 million for transportation improvements adjoining KY Highway 237 Central Parkway in partnership with Boone County Transportation Improvement District (TID). The $10 million TID investment will significantly leverage positive impacts on the transportation network and reduce future project costs
  • This is the first TID created after legislation in the 2022 session passed to allow local governments to enter into these agreements. The project results from advocacy and collaboration between Schickel, Boone County Judge/Executive Gary Moore, and local government.
• More than $22.7 million total to address road conditions
  • $20.2 to address conditions on Interstate 71 from mile point 69.89 to mile point 77.724, and 
  • $2.5 million to address conditions of KY Highway 18 from mile point 15.26 to mile point 16.63, 
• $5 million to provide east-west connectivity and improved mobility from KY Highway 237 (Pleasant Valley Road) through KY Highway 842 (Hopeful Church Road) to Mall Road and the Interstate 75 interchange.

House Joint Resolution 91 includes scheduled projects and anticipated needs for the remaining four years of the six-year highway construction plan. Boone County-specific projects can be found on pages 14-21. As a provision in HB 1, Schickel and the Senate successfully leveraged $450 million from Kentucky’s $3.7 billion budget reserve trust fund to boost the state’s road, bridge, and highway repair efforts in the state road plan.

Additionally, $20 million was provided in infrastructure funding for the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, and $5 million will be distributed to the Sanitation District 1 of Northern Kentucky to support consent decree remediation. Schickel secured these awards as provisions of HB 1.